Memorials of the Faithful Part 17

Since he had discovered that she was well versed in learned questions and in sacred commentaries and Texts, the two often carried on debates; she would speak on such themes as the Day of Resurrection, the Balance, and the ?ira?,(123) and he would not turn away.

Then came a night when the father of Ibn-i-alusi called at the house of his son. He had a meeting with Tahirih and abruptly, without asking a single question, began to curse, mock and revile her. Embarra.s.sed at his father's behavior, Ibn-i-alusi apologized. Then he said: "The answer has come from Constantinople. The King has commanded that you be set free, but only on condition that you leave his realms. Go then, tomorrow, make your preparations for the journey, and hasten away from this land."

Accordingly Tahirih, with her women companions, left the mufti's house, saw to arranging for their travel gear, and went out of Ba_gh_dad. When they left the city, a number of Arab believers, carrying arms, walked along beside their convoy. Among the escort were _Sh_ay_kh_ Sul?an, _Sh_ay_kh_ Mu?ammad and his distinguished son Mu?ammad-Mu??afa, and _Sh_ay_kh_ ?ali?, and these were mounted. It was _Sh_ay_kh_ Mu?ammad who defrayed the expenses of the journey.

When they reached Kirman_sh_ah the women alighted at one house, the men at another, and the inhabitants arrived in a continuous stream to seek information as to the new Faith. Here as elsewhere the 'ulamas were soon in a state of frenzy and they commanded that the newcomers be expelled. As a result the kad-_kh_uda or chief officer of that quarter, with a band of people, laid siege to the house where Tahirih was, and sacked it. Then they placed Tahirih and her companions in an uncovered howdah and carried them from the town to an open field, where they put the captives out. The drivers then took their animals and returned to the city. The victims were left on the bare ground, with no food, no shelter, and no means of traveling on.

Tahirih at once wrote a letter to the prince of that territory, in which she told him: "O thou just Governor! We were guests in your city. Is this the way you treat your guests?" When her letter was brought to the Governor of Kirman_sh_ah he said: "I knew nothing of this injustice. This mischief was kindled by the divines." He immediately commanded the kad-_kh_uda to return all the travelers' belongings. That official duly surrendered the stolen goods, the drivers with their animals came back out of the city, the travelers took their places and resumed the journey.

They arrived in Hamadan and here their stay was a happy one. The most ill.u.s.trious ladies of that city, even the princesses, would come to visit, seeking the benefits of Tahirih's teaching. In Hamadan she dismissed a part of her escort and sent them back to Ba_gh_dad, while she brought some of them, including _Sh_amsu'd-?u?a and _Sh_ay_kh_-?ali?, along with her to Qazvin.

As they traveled, some riders advanced to meet them, kinsmen of Tahirih's from Qazvin, and they wished to lead her away alone, unescorted by the others, to her father's house. Tahirih refused, saying: "These are in my company." In this way they entered Qazvin. Tahirih proceeded to her father's house, while the Arabs who had formed her escort alighted at a caravanserai. Tahirih soon left her father and went to live with her brother, and there the great ladies of the city would come to visit her; all this until the murder of Mulla Taqi,(124) when every Babi in Qazvin was taken prisoner. Some were sent to ?ihran and then returned to Qazvin and martyred.

Mulla Taqi's murder came about in this way: One day, when that besotted tyrant had mounted his pulpit, he began to mock and revile the great _Sh_ay_kh_ A?mad-i-Ahsa'i. Shamelessly, grossly, screaming obscenities, he cried out: "That _Sh_ay_kh_ is the one who has kindled this fire of evil, and subjected the whole world to this ordeal!" There was an inquirer in the audience, a native of _Sh_iraz. He found the taunts, jeers and indecencies to be more than he could bear. Under cover of darkness he betook himself to the mosque, plunged a spearhead between the lips of Mulla Taqi and fled. The next morning they arrested the defenseless believers and thereupon subjected them to agonizing torture, though all were innocent and knew nothing of what had come to pa.s.s. There was never any question of investigating the case; the believers repeatedly declared their innocence but no one paid them any heed. When a few days had pa.s.sed the killer gave himself up; he confessed to the authorities, informing them that he had committed the murder because Mulla Taqi had vilified _Sh_ay_kh_ A?mad. "I deliver myself into your hands," he told them, "so that you will set these innocent people free." They arrested him as well, put him in the stocks, chained him, and sent him in chains, along with the others, to ?ihran.

Once there he observed that despite his confession, the others were not released. By night, he made his escape from the prison and went to the house of Ri?a _Kh_an-that rare and precious man, that star-sacrifice among the lovers of G.o.d-the son of Mu?ammad _Kh_an, Master of the Horse to Mu?ammad _Sh_ah. He stayed there for a time, after which he and Ri?a _Kh_an secretly rode away to the Fort of _Sh_ay_kh_ Tabarsi in Mazindaran.(125) Mu?ammad _Kh_an sent riders after them to track them down, but try as they might, no one could find them. Those two hors.e.m.e.n got to the Fort of Tabarsi, where both of them won a martyr's death. As for the other friends who were in the prison at ?ihran, some of these were returned to Qazvin and they too suffered martyrdom.

One day the administrator of finance, Mirza _Sh_afi, called in the murderer and addressed him, saying: "Jinab, do you belong to a dervish order, or do you follow the Law? If you are a follower of the Law, why did you deal that learned mujtahid a cruel, a fatal blow in the mouth? If you are a dervish and follow the Path, one of the rules of the Path is to harm no man. How, then, could you slaughter that zealous divine?" "Sir," he replied, "besides the Law, and besides the Path, we also have the Truth.

It was in serving the Truth that I paid him for his deed."(126)

These things would take place before the reality of this Cause was revealed and all was made plain. For in those days no one knew that the Manifestation of the Bab would culminate in the Manifestation of the Blessed Beauty and that the law of retaliation would be done away with, and the foundation-principle of the Law of G.o.d would be this, that "It is better for you to be killed than to kill"; that discord and contention would cease, and the rule of war and butchery would fall away. In those days, that sort of thing would happen. But praised be G.o.d, with the advent of the Blessed Beauty such a splendor of harmony and peace shone forth, such a spirit of meekness and long-suffering, that when in Yazd men, women and children were made the targets of enemy fire or were put to the sword, when the leaders and the evil 'ulamas and their followers joined together and unitedly a.s.saulted those defenseless victims and spilled out their blood-hacking at and rending apart the bodies of chaste women, with their daggers slashing the throats of children they had orphaned, then setting the torn and mangled limbs on fire-not one of the friends of G.o.d lifted a hand against them. Indeed, among those martyrs, those real companions of the ones who died, long gone, at Karbila-was a man who, when he saw the drawn sword flashing over him, thrust sugar candy into his murderer's mouth and cried, "With a sweet taste on your lips, put me to death-for you bring me martyrdom, my dearest wish!"

Let us return to our theme. After the murder of her impious uncle, Mulla Taqi, in Qazvin, Tahirih fell into dire straits. She was a prisoner and heavy of heart, grieving over the painful events that had come to pa.s.s.

She was watched on every side, by attendants, guards, the farra_sh_es, and her foes. While she languished thus, Baha'u'llah dispatched Hadiy-i-Qazvini, husband of the celebrated _Kh_atun-Jan, from the capital, and they managed, by a stratagem, to free her from that embroilment and got her to ?ihran in the night. She alighted at the mansion of Baha'u'llah and was lodged in an upper apartment.

When word of this spread throughout ?ihran, the Government hunted for her high and low; nevertheless, the friends kept arriving to see her, in a steady stream, and Tahirih, seated behind a curtain, would converse with them. One day the great Siyyid Ya?ya, surnamed Vahid, was present there.

As he sat without, Tahirih listened to him from behind the veil. I was then a child, and was sitting on her lap. With eloquence and fervor, Vahid was discoursing on the signs and verses that bore witness to the advent of the new Manifestation. She suddenly interrupted him and, raising her voice, vehemently declared: "O Ya?ya! Let deeds, not words, testify to thy faith, if thou art a man of true learning. Cease idly repeating the traditions of the past, for the day of service, of steadfast action, is come. Now is the time to show forth the true signs of G.o.d, to rend asunder the veils of idle fancy, to promote the Word of G.o.d, and to sacrifice ourselves in His path. Let deeds, not words, be our adorning!"

The Blessed Beauty made elaborate arrangements for Tahirih's journey to Bada_sh_t and sent her off with an equipage and retinue. His own party left for that region some days afterward.

In Bada_sh_t, there was a great open field. Through its center a stream flowed, and to its right, left, and rear there were three gardens, the envy of Paradise. One of those gardens was a.s.signed to Quddus,(127) but this was kept a secret. Another was set apart for Tahirih, and in a third was raised the pavilion of Baha'u'llah. On the field amidst the three gardens, the believers pitched their tents. Evenings, Baha'u'llah, Quddus and Tahirih would come together. In those days the fact that the Bab was the Qa'im had not yet been proclaimed; it was the Blessed Beauty, with Quddus, Who arranged for the proclamation of a universal Advent and the abrogation and repudiation of the ancient laws.

Then one day, and there was a wisdom in it, Baha'u'llah fell ill; that is, the indisposition was to serve a vital purpose. On a sudden, in the sight of all, Quddus came out of his garden, and entered the pavilion of Baha'u'llah. But Tahirih sent him a message, to say that their Host being ill, Quddus should visit her garden instead. His answer was: "This garden is preferable. Come, then, to this one." Tahirih, with her face unveiled, stepped from her garden, advancing to the pavilion of Baha'u'llah; and as she came, she shouted aloud these words: "The Trumpet is sounding! The great Trump is blown! The universal Advent is now proclaimed!"(128) The believers gathered in that tent were panic struck, and each one asked himself, "How can the Law be abrogated? How is it that this woman stands here without her veil?"

"Read the Surih of the Inevitable,"(129) said Baha'u'llah; and the reader began: "When the Day that must come shall have come suddenly... Day that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!..." and thus was the new Dispensation announced and the great Resurrection made manifest. At the start, those who were present fled away, and some forsook their Faith, while some fell a prey to suspicion and doubt, and a number, after wavering, returned to the presence of Baha'u'llah. The Conference of Bada_sh_t broke up, but the universal Advent had been proclaimed.

Afterward, Quddus hastened away to the Fort of Tabarsi(130) and the Blessed Beauty, with provisions and equipment, journeyed to Niyala, having the intention of going on from there by night, making His way through the enemy encampment and entering the Fort. But Mirza Taqi, the Governor of amul, got word of this, and with seven hundred riflemen arrived in Niyala.

Surrounding the village by night, he sent Baha'u'llah with eleven riders back to amul, and those calamities and tribulations, told of before, came to pa.s.s.

As for Tahirih, after the breakup at Bada_sh_t she was captured, and the oppressors sent her back under guard to ?ihran. There she was imprisoned in the house of Ma?mud _Kh_an, the Kalantar. But she was aflame, enamored, restless, and could not be still. The ladies of ?ihran, on one pretext or another, crowded to see and listen to her. It happened that there was a celebration at the Mayor's house for the marriage of his son; a nuptial banquet was prepared, and the house adorned. The flower of Tihran's ladies were invited, the princesses, the wives of vazirs and other great. A splendid wedding it was, with instrumental music and vocal melodies-by day and night the lute, the bells and songs. Then Tahirih began to speak; and so bewitched were the great ladies that they forsook the cithern and the drum and all the pleasures of the wedding feast, to crowd about Tahirih and listen to the sweet words of her mouth.

Thus she remained, a helpless captive. Then came the attempt on the life of the _Sh_ah;(131) a farman was issued; she was sentenced to death.

Saying she was summoned to the Prime Minister's, they arrived to lead her away from the Kalantar's house. She bathed her face and hands, arrayed herself in a costly dress, and scented with attar of roses she came out of the house.

They brought her into a garden, where the headsmen waited; but these wavered and then refused to end her life. A slave was found, far gone in drunkenness; besotted, vicious, black of heart. And he strangled Tahirih.

He forced a scarf between her lips and rammed it down her throat. Then they lifted up her unsullied body and flung it in a well, there in the garden, and over it threw down earth and stones. But Tahirih rejoiced; she had heard with a light heart the tidings of her martyrdom; she set her eyes on the supernal Kingdom and offered up her life.

Salutations be unto her, and praise. Holy be her dust, as the tiers of light come down on it from Heaven.

FOOTNOTES

1 For the author of The Dawn-Breakers, see Nabil-i-Zarandi.

2 Cf. Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 395, note 1.

3 Cf. Qur'an 19:98.

4 Qur'an 3:91.

5 Qur'an 54:55.

6 18491850.

7 1853; 1892.

8 aqa Jan. Cf. Shoghi Effendi, G.o.d Pa.s.ses By, p. 189.

9 Siyyid Mu?ammad, the Antichrist of the Baha'i Revelation. Cf. Ibid., pp. 164 and 189.

10 The Afnan are the kindred of the Bab. Ibid., pp. 239; 328.

11 Herald of the Prophet Mu?ammad.

12 Qur'an 68:4.

13 This wine, Rumi says elsewhere, comes from the jar of "Yea verily."

That is, it symbolizes the Primal Covenant established between G.o.d and man on the day of "Am I not your Lord?" On that day, the Creator summoned posterity out of the loins of Adam and said to the generations unborn, "Am I not your Lord?" Whereupon they answered, "Yea, verily, Thou art." Cf. Qur'an 7:171.

14 The Turkish para was one-ninth of a cent. Cf. Webster, New International Dictionary.

15 Nabil, author of The Dawn-Breakers, is Baha'u'llah's "Poet-Laureate, His chronicler and His indefatigable disciple." Cf. G.o.d Pa.s.ses By, p. 130.

16 Mirza Ya?ya, the community's "nominal head," was the "center provisionally appointed pending the manifestation of the Promised One." Ibid., p. 12728.

17 A reference to Islamic symbolism, according to which good is protected from evil: the angels repel such evil spirits as attempt to spy on Paradise, by hurling shooting stars at them. Cf. Qur'an 15:18, 37:10 and 67:5.

18 A reference to the declaration of Baha'u'llah's advent in 1863, as the Promised One of the Bab. The Bab's own advent had taken place in the "year sixty"-1844.

19 Baha'i writings emphasize that the "divinity attributed to so great a Being and the complete incarnation of the names and attributes of G.o.d in so exalted a Person should, under no circ.u.mstances, be misconceived or misinterpreted ... that invisible yet rational G.o.d ... however much we extol the divinity of His Manifestations on earth, can in no wise incarnate His infinite, His unknowable, His incorruptible and all-embracing Reality in ... a mortal being." Cf.

Shoghi Effendi, The Dispensation of Baha'u'llah.

20 According to the abjad reckoning, the letters of "_sh_idad" total 309. 1892, the date of Baha'u'llah's ascension, was 1309 A.H.